1. Why?I'm really wanting to push on and finish this series....The next in line for the Rail Maps was going to be South America, but seeing that is being targeted at present by commenters... Let's see where this one goes...pretty colourful like Asia to start.

4. Descriptions of any unique features or areas.The map assumes a number of seaways are covered in Indonesia, Phillipines and Japan because of the closeness of the islands.A little bot of Asian flavour in each of the station designs, with a major influence from the Monguls in the west.Three major stations in this map, 4 - 5 - 3 terminus left to right

Going for the set huh? Well, its an awesome start. The big thing that stands out to me as needing a fix are the multiple stations in Pakistan and eastern Turkey. One would think that major crossroads would be in more prominent locations, like China and Russia or perhaps India. I like the colors though and the graphic shapes are cool too.

natty_dread wrote:Nice work! Will be interesting to see where this goes.

Thanks natty....

Industrial Helix wrote:Going for the set huh? Well, its an awesome start. The big thing that stands out to me as needing a fix are the multiple stations in Pakistan and eastern Turkey. One would think that major crossroads would be in more prominent locations, like China and Russia or perhaps India. I like the colors though and the graphic shapes are cool too.

Yep the set seems the obvious thing to do.the map was taken from this image below of rail networks and the prospective links across asia.http://www.unescap.org/ttdw/common/TIS/ ... latest.jpg (636kb)I don't know if the multi stations can be overcome (unless you can come up with some solution from the map.You'll see that i've already taken artistic license....Yes, i though Asia had to be represented by it's multiple cultural shapes. Colours, well, we'll see where this ends up.

Hmm... judging by that map it seems like you've really got no other choice. I guess go with it unless you want to invent some more rail lines. One possibility is to connect at Kashi, but Islamabad seems a better choice than that. Another option would be to do away with the 4 way meets... though this will break from the previous rail maps, however, its not necessarily a bad thing.

Also... China's rail is tough to see on the yellowish background. Perhaps you could use tracks that contrast with the background rather than match?

And I just noticed the little rooftop caps on the stations, very cool. you should integrate them in with the legend down at the bottom.

You could also move the guide in between Rail and Asia and throw the Philippines into the mix. It's a major population area, part of Asia (I would say) and you've got the room to do it. This would make adding Borneo onto the Indonesian railway a possibility as well.

Industrial Helix wrote:Hmm... judging by that map it seems like you've really got no other choice. I guess go with it unless you want to invent some more rail lines. One possibility is to connect at Kashi, but Islamabad seems a better choice than that. Another option would be to do away with the 4 way meets... though this will break from the previous rail maps, however, its not necessarily a bad thing.

Also... China's rail is tough to see on the yellowish background. Perhaps you could use tracks that contrast with the background rather than match?

And I just noticed the little rooftop caps on the stations, very cool. you should integrate them in with the legend down at the bottom.

You could also move the guide in between Rail and Asia and throw the Philippines into the mix. It's a major population area, part of Asia (I would say) and you've got the room to do it. This would make adding Borneo onto the Indonesian railway a possibility as well.

Nice post...i like your ideas. I am going to see if i can re-work those terminals to something better.

This is a bit more orted now i think....i've taken the political borders and made the countries as the backdrop.Added the Philippines, and made a new line for the Stans and Pakistan.Also added Borneo to the Indonesian line, and Kuala Lumpur to the SE Asian Line.

Click image to enlarge.

Last edited by cairnswk on Sun Nov 15, 2009 3:16 am, edited 1 time in total.

You know, i'm not a big fan of rail maps, but smaller bonuses could convince me to try it.I think that the back ground is very faded, almost invisible in some points (india, indonesia). Fortunately the legend helps for this. KPT is the worst thing i see for now, maybe reducing a bit the "title-footer" could help.What is the 4 in the middle of the Indian Ocean? Try to make more visible the link between HKG and ARR

Considering what I see, the map has all the requirements to be moved into the drafting room.

[ Moved ]

I do NOT visit this site and I'm NOT Team CC anymore.All PMs are autobinned. If you need to contact me, you should already have a way to do it without using this site.Thanks to those who helped me through the years.

thenobodies80 wrote:You know, i'm not a big fan of rail maps, but smaller bonuses could convince me to try it.I think that the back ground is very faded, almost invisible in some points (india, indonesia). Fortunately the legend helps for this. KPT is the worst thing i see for now, maybe reducing a bit the "title-footer" could help.What is the 4 in the middle of the Indian Ocean? Try to make more visible the link between HKG and ARR

Considering what I see, the map has all the requirements to be moved into the drafting room.

[ Moved ]

Thanks for the move, thenobodies80

1. background fixed.2. KPT - need to sort somrething there, watch this space...3. 4 was a stray left-over that i missed taking out..4. HGK link now more visible.5. I've changed the terminus from Islamabad to Dushanbe so that i could get 5 stations in that terminus rather than the previous 4.6. the title and legend needs a lot of work yet, so please....7. i've looked at the bonuses and placed 4 neutrals to bring the odds down of losing normal distributions in the first round.8. I've added three long distance trains...do you want them at all, or maybe another?

It seems really separated from the background. Do the stations have to be so tall? You couldn't make them just a bit shorter? The map just seems to be just stations and so is is kinda hard to figure match things up as to what cities are what in where in the world. It is looking good though.

captainwalrus wrote:It seems really separated from the background. Do the stations have to be so tall? You couldn't make them just a bit shorter? The map just seems to be just stations and so is is kinda hard to figure match things up as to what cities are what in where in the world. It is looking good though.

Yes, it seems seperated because there is a transparency layer between the background and the stations. If it becomes more trasnparent then the colors clash too widly.The stations can become 4 pixels shorter.Remember a lot of these cities wil be unfamiliar because of their 3 letter codes, and Aisa is a big place with a lot of small countries...the tyranny of size this time.

for an asian rail map, it's a bit disappointing that the most famous asian railway of all, the shinkansen, is represented by only one current station, TYO tokyo, while the other two rail stations shown in japan are only projected future connections. is there any way that u can move NAG nagasaki westward and both TYO tokyo and SAP sapporo northward to squeeze in OSA osaka, which is a current shinkansen station on the heavily-travelled tokaido line? u'll have to do other stuff too because the small is already over 630 pixels wide.

iancanton wrote:for an asian rail map, it's a bit disappointing that the most famous asian railway of all, the shinkansen, is represented by only one current station, TYO tokyo, while the other two rail stations shown in japan are only projected future connections. is there any way that u can move NAG nagasaki westward and both TYO tokyo and SAP sapporo northward to squeeze in OSA osaka, which is a current shinkansen station on the heavily-travelled tokaido line? u'll have to do other stuff too because the small is already over 630 pixels wide.

TOS toshkent ought to be TAS tashkent, which is in uzbekistan and is therefore a logical jumping-off place for mashhad.

ian.

Ian, i've added OSA for you.Map size for small is down to 630 px again, although it was only 2 above that, i didn't see that as a major issue.Google lists ToshKent, while variious other sources have combinations of other names.To that, however, you must be looking at the original version rather than the latesst V3 above this, as Toshkent has been been removed from the list.I will endeavour to update the list of stations in post one later on...

Changes:1. OSA added to Japan lines2. Station deisgn remodelled, more to come as it is tidied and enahnced; it is based on the Railway Museum in Beijing.3. No-one responded to long-distance trains, so they're gone4. Station list front page updated.

BTK is a tad too close to SIN, it insinuates a connection and I think it might be best if relocated some to the right. The letters labeling the rail lines are tough on the eyes at that font style in that size.

I wonder if having the two main stations so close to each other is a good idea. Hong Kong might be a better option if you're willing to relocate the Japan link and i think it would balance the map out much better. Though you'll have to move the Philippines east a little bit.